A new monthly pocket-sized magazine goes offline in an online world

Nepo Baby magazine is priced at `99 a month. PIC COURTESY/SRISHTI GARG

There was a time when Srishti Garg thought she would become a doctor. Both her parents are doctors, and she had taken up PCB in standard 11, preparing to follow what she believed was the path laid out for her. Then she watched The Devil Wears Prada (2006) before heading to physics tuition.

"I immediately called my mom and I told her, ‘I can't do science anymore. I feel like my calling is somewhere in fashion and journalism,'" she recalls.

That calling eventually led her to study fashion communication and build a career in content. Now, it has also found its way into a small, A5-sized magazine called Nepo Baby Magazine, a monthly, deliberately unserious publication that Garg describes as "your algorithm in your hands".

The idea came from being overwhelmed by the very digital world she worked in.

Srishti Garg

"My brain was fried because of my screen time and I hated how much time I was spending on social media. But I also didn't have the bandwidth of picking up a book and reading it. So, I just wanted a quick fix for my brain where I didn't have to open my phone but I was still getting chatpata content."

So, she decided to curate something she herself would want to read. "It had everything. It had some gossip. It had recipes. It had Sudoku. It had word puzzles. It had journalling, sort of like a brain activity where you could do something with origami." She even attaches origami papers between the pages.

There are letters from the editor, a big-sis advice column, her monthly favourites and sections ranging from a night-time routine to interactive activities. "You don't have to necessarily open your phone to consume content," she says, "It's sort of like your escape from the digital world and you're touching grass."

The magazine is intentionally easy to carry. "It's sort of like an A5-size pamphlet sort of thing. You can literally just put it in your tote bag or your purse and carry it around with you."

The name, meanwhile, is an Internet joke turned into a publishing identity. "My boyfriend and I always keep talking about the fact that if we were Nepo Babies, our life would have been so much easier," Garg laughs, "Being a Nepo Baby is everyone's dream occupation. You get to have everything at your own access. The world feels lighter and easier on you."

But there is another layer to the joke. "There's a running joke that Nepo Babies don't work, right? So, we just wanted to make it sound like Nepo Babies are so unserious and they don't work, but we actually do."

Each edition changes according to Garg's month and, crucially, her readers' feedback. "After every edition, after people have read it, I post a story asking them, ‘Okay, what did you like? What didn't you like? What do you want to hear more from this magazine?'"

While Sudoku templates are sourced online, Garg designs her word puzzles herself, filling them with words her followers associate with her and her community. "It also makes the community feel a little bit more special," she says.

How to get it

There is no conventional subscription. Instead, Garg announces a specific date and time every month when she posts a Google Form for the next edition. Readers have to fill in their name, address and PIN code, make a payment via the QR code provided, and upload a screenshot of the payment proof. The first 100 people to successfully complete the process get a copy.

The first edition had just 50 copies, all of which sold out in "five to 10 minutes". The latest edition increased the print run to 100 copies.

At Rs 99, Garg says affordability was important. "Most of my followers are either in college or they are students. I didn't want to create something overly expensive. I wanted them to actually enjoy it without putting a hole in their pocket."